Note to Rv Lv 14II
[7] skýflir ‘destroyer’: The main ms. has ‘skyklir’. In the left-hand margin is written ‘skiklir eggia / a verbo eg skek’, while below the st. is written in square brackets ‘eggia skyflir, aff eg skyfr’, both by the same scribe as of the main text. It is not clear whether these represent his attempts to read his exemplar or to make sense of the word. It is assumed here that skiklir is the scribe’s attempt to make sense of what he can read, while skýflir is proposed as an emendation, adopted here. The verb skýfa, to which he links it (similarly AEW: skyflir), is glossed in LP as hugge itu ‘cut in two’ while AEW translates as schieben ‘shove, push’ (similarly Fritzner); both meanings are noted in ÍF 34. A meaning such as ‘destroyer’ is however also suggested by the kenning gullskýflir ‘gold-waster’ in Gsind Hákdr 4/3I. It is not clear where Bibire’s 1988 translation of skýflir as ‘skirmisher’ comes from.
References
- Bibliography
- AEW = Vries, Jan de. 1962. Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2nd rev. edn. Rpt. 1977. Leiden: Brill.
- LP = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1931. Lexicon poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis: Ordbog over det norsk-islandske skjaldesprog oprindelig forfattet af Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Møller.
- Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
- ÍF 34 = Orkneyinga saga. Ed. Finnbogi Guðmundsson. 1965.
- Internal references
- Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Guthormr sindri, Hákonardrápa 4’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 162.